Our featured client, Shawna Ervin, likes to keep busy by writing in more than one genre! This 2017 Pushcart nominee has had poetry published in Tampa Review, Talking River, Crack the Spine, After the Pause, Door is a Jar, Hiram Poetry Review, and Steam Ticket; and prose published in Apalachee Review, Front Porch, The Delmarva Review, Summerset Review, Superstition Review, and Willow Review.

Read on and watch the video to find out how Writer’s Relief helps Shawna spend less time researching journals and deadlines—and more time writing and getting published!

In Shawna’s Own Words

Since joining the Writer’s Relief family in 2013, I have had ten essays and twenty poems published, been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and received a fellowship for residency. After several years of increasing success with writing, last year I decided to pursue an MFA. It has been a wonderful experience.

I could not have gotten to this point without the help of Writer’s Relief. When I’ve been discouraged or considered giving up writing, my strategists encouraged me. I feel like I am part of a larger writing community when I have strategy calls or touch base via email. I know that my work will be read and edited carefully, which gives it a professional touch when it goes out into the world. As the parent of a child with special needs, my time is fragmented and limited. What time I do have, I am able to use writing and revising rather than researching markets and deadlines, tracking down editors’ names, or updating my cover letter each time a poem or essay is published.

Writing has been a way for me to hang on to my identity while raising my kids, and a way to push myself to grow. My writing time is my oasis; it’s when I can focus on myself and my goals—which is something parents desperately need. As soon as I complete one project, I am already thinking about how I can improve on the next project. Rather than focusing on submission stats, I am able to focus on my work. When a piece is rejected, I quickly forward the response to Writer’s Relief and return to what keeps me writing—which is writing the best I can at the moment. When pieces are accepted, Writer’s Relief helps me navigate the relationships I am building with editors at various journals. Thanks to Writer’s Relief, very few pieces I’ve written over the past several years have been retired without finding a home. And I have been able to learn from each piece and look forward to many more years of writing.

More About Shawna Ervin

Shawna Ervin is an MFA candidate at Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University, where she is studying both nonfiction and poetry. She also was a Sustainable Arts Fellow at the Mineral School residency.

You can find out more about Shawna Ervin on her website.